Monochrome Vision by Angus Maindonald
I get the notion that people want to understand what living is. They want to hold on to this fleeting experience, to lock down this thing called life. In this modern age we still can't really get our heads around what it is to live, what it is to be human, what it is to really experience something anymore. Enter photography. I can show you what life is through my eyes, what I see, what the experience of living in this world can hold. Give you a snapshot of the entire experience of living, something that you can hold on to and start to deconstruct and understand.
Humans main sensory receptor is sight, so what aesthetic is it that appeals to your eye? It’s a cultivated mindset, taking photographs. You look at the world differently, like someone put kaleidoscope glasses on you and now there is this superimposed perspective of symmetries, angles, light orientation and all those other compositional elements. What small details trigger you to stop and observe, to get deeper into your environment. Oh that looks nice, frame it in your mind's eye, then capture that moment. Then the question is, what will other people see when they look at a photo? How can you translate your perspective of attractive composition to another? Does it even matter if other people like what I like? Humans like to share though, we want to translate our experience into the terms of another person.
We like stories, human culture is built on stories. A picture paints a thousand words right? Well hey, how about you look at this photo then. It’s going to trigger so much more than words can. Through photo’s we not only remember these passing moments in life but we have the ability to connect better with other people because we have this fixed medium that we can reference ourselves in. We can understand other people's perception of the world and start to align our ideas with theirs. It's a deep, inherently human connection that we start to form. Photographs become this levelling ground where people can start to appreciate these collective experiences, even if they don’t consciously realize it.
Maybe that's why film photography is coming back. We want to connect with people on a real, primal level. People are coming to terms with the idea that more doesn't really mean better. Slow down, be more selective, be more analytical about what you are about to do. Quality of memories over quantity. That's film photography. Opportunistic selection, spontaneity at its finest. Film also captures this rawness that seems to be missing within the digital age. Not so monotonous and standardized. There are so many small nuances that change and provide these unique differences with every shot. There is more personality to it, maybe the imperfections are really analogous to human nature and how we truly are. It draws in people that want more unfiltered and imperfect experiences in their life, real unmanufactured experiences. My photos aren’t perfect, they are just an expression of the world I live in and how I choose to see it.
